The present invention relates to buckles, and more particularly to a safety buckle, which has buffer means to buffer the force when the male buckle member and the female buckle member are pulled in reversed directions after locking.
A variety of buckles have been disclosed for use with sports bags, for example, golf bags, bowling ball bags, and etc. for enabling the bags to be fastened to an object, or the user""s body. These buckles are commonly comprised of a male buckle member fastened to one strap member, and a female buckle member fastened to another strap member for receiving the male buckle member. These buckles have no means to buffer stretching force, and the parts may be damaged when heavily stretched.
FIGS. 13 and 14 show a buckle according to Taiwan Patent Publication No. 362394. This structure of buckle is comprised of a male buckle member A and a female buckle member B. The male buckle member A comprises a front hook A1, and a rear mounting slot A2 for the mounting of a strap member. The female buckle member B comprises a front receiving chamber B1 for receiving the male buckle member A, a button B3, and a hook B2 formed integral with the button B3 for engagement with the front hook A1 of the male buckle member A. After insertion of the male buckle member A into the receiving chamber B1 in the female buckle member B, the front hook A1 of the male buckle member A is hooked up with the hook B2 of the female buckle member B. When depressing the button B3, the hook B2 is disengaged from the front hook A1, enabling the male buckle member A to be disconnected from the female buckle member B. Because the hook B2 is formed integral with the button B3 and the female buckle member B has no means to buffer stretching force, the hooks B2 and A1 may be damaged when the male buckle member A and the female buckle member B are suddenly stretched.
The present invention provides a safety buckle, which eliminates the aforesaid problem. According to one aspect of the present invention, the safety buckle comprises a male buckle member, and a female buckle member having a receiving chamber for receiving the male buckle member, wherein the male buckle member comprises axially compressible buffer means that buffers stretching force when the male buckle member and the female buckle member are pulled in reversed directions after locking. According to another aspect of the present invention, the male buckle member comprises two side blocks formed integral with two opposite lateral side walls thereof, and the female buckle member comprises two longitudinal sliding grooves bilaterally disposed in the receiving chamber for receiving the side blocks of the male buckle member after insertion of the male buckle member into the receiving chamber in the female buckle member.